Average pace: 5:22/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Ran Piper Mill Trail, Conifer and Spruce Loops
Distance: 11.02 km
Weather: Sun
Temp: 21-25ºC
Wind: light to moderate
Calories burned: 798
Total distance to date: 2284 km
The best part about today’s run was that I managed 11 km and my left foot did not hurt. Woot, I say. It did start to feel a little sore on the walk back when I was on the last block of Fader Street, about 100-200 m from home and even then it was fine to walk on. To quote Portal, this was a triumph.
With the temperature forecast to climb to 28ºC by afternoon, I headed out at 11:30 a.m. and started my run near the parking lot by the lake, heading clockwise. This was a good choice as the sun stayed on my back for the run instead of the opposite, which generally feels a lot worse.
As the temperature climbed I found myself feeling sluggish. The breeze helped but the high humidity of last weekend was gone and the dry heat tends to leave me feeling parched and without energy. As a result my pace was 5:22/km, a full four seconds slower than my last 11K run. Disappointing, especially with my feet bothering me quite a bit on the previous long outing. Maybe I ran faster just to get it over with.
I pulled the calf of my left leg last night and felt it twinge a few times but not enough to account for the slower performance. Likewise, I had a few seconds of cramping but it subsided and never slowed me down.
The graph on the Nike+ site is one of the weirdest I’ve seen. Most commonly the line from the start of the run to the end does a gradual decline, levels off about halfway through then ticks up at the end. This one basically follows the pattern except instead of leveling off, each km looks like a mountain valley, up and down, up and down, like I kept fighting to push ahead and then my body said “Nope!” and eased off. I do not remember experiencing anything like this during the run itself.
I am thinking about possibly running again tomorrow to see how it would compare to today’s.
One other thing I’ll say: when I finished I went to the faucet near the dam and drank about eight handfuls of cold water and it was the best water I’ve had all year. There is something absolutely wonderful about cool, fresh water after a long, dry run.
